Reynad Darkmantle
Reynad Darkmantle Born into the strict minor noble family of the Darkmantles in the famed City of Wizards, Ceryl, Reynad Darkmantle was groomed from the moment he could walk to lead his family to a great future. Strong supporters of Vinter Raelthorne IV, the Darkmantle family name suffered indignity when the tyrant king was deposed by his brother Leto. Even though their house had been reduced in power, the Darkmantle family saw their infallible resurrection through Reynad, who had shown that he possessed the warcaster gift. Trained at the Strategic Academy to control and refine his warcaster potential, alongside the standard military training expected of young officers to know. While Reynad had an affinity for physical training he struggled learning history, tactics, and philosophy. This lack of discipline hatched the beginnings of the idea to leave before his official journeyman warcaster training. Yearning the chance for glory and prestige like the heroes of old he left Caspia by leveraging his nobility, and set off with a private military company as an freelance warcaster. Over the next few years Reynad come to run the company by swiftly moving up the ranks by using his success as a warcaster, and renamed it Darkmantle Security Services. Over the course of the next decade Reynad experienced significant frontline action. It was during the Siege of Corvis that Reynad fought against the merciless eastern warriors the Skorne, and his company was called to serve Cygnar during the Caspia-Sul war and fight against the zealous Sul-Menites. Although trained in the typical Cygnaran combined-arms approach to combat, Reynad favours him and his men to be more melee orientated and specialize in taking out the toughest enemy formations in swift and decisive rushes. His mechanikal greatsword Flash is enhanced to never lose momentum as long as his feeds his arcane power into it, and is more than capable of cutting down heavy 'jacks in a blur of flurried slashes while his troops fend off lesser foes. Now he is currently entangled in the Khadoran invasion into Ord, with most his firepower back at the city of Midfast while him and a select few head to Merin to get reinforcements, avoiding Khadoran war patrols and mysterious Cryx on the roads. Stats Weapons Skills Benefits and Abilities Spell List 603 AR, near Corvis The cannons from the Defender's cannons boomed from the fortified hill behind him, Skorne warriors being blown into chunks as they rushed forwards. Over the ten years of fighting never before had Reynad seen such suicidal actions from a living being. Skin pierced with sharp blades with masks as the only upper body armour, the Skorne warriors fell upon the first trench with greatswords raised, ignoring bayonets thrusted into their guts and bullets impacting their chests. With each swing a trencher died, bodies cut cleanly in half with brutal force as the bladesmen were spurred on by their grisly art. Reaching into the mind of his faithful Nomad warjack, Reynad rushed forth a surge of arcane power and directed it towards the savages to aid them. "You there!" It was that damned Captain Barnaby, famous for his callous disregard for the lives of his own men, "Bring that warjack back here now mercenary scum, those men knew they were assigned to slow down the invaders initial wave. The best thing we can do is to fortify this position." It was astounding that such a cowardly man had advanced to the rank of captain, not even trying to minimize the casualties of this battle. "Sorry, sir, but I don't take orders from fat pigs that pretend to be men, now if you excuse me I have men to save." Not even turning to look at Barnaby's red pouted face, Reynad drew his mechanika greatsword and surged forward over the rough terrain with arcane ease. The day he would take orders from privileged noble scum would be the day he went back to Merywyn to beg to rejoin his family's household. He jumped into the trench, greatsword cleaving a nihilator in two while his Nomad crushed several with it's battle blade. While these Skorne were skilled in close combat Reynad had the advantage of years of teaching by the finest knights of Llael, backhanding a blade aimed for his skull, power field sparking violently. With speed and agility that belied his armour, Reynad threshing his way through the blood soaked narrow ditch. Suddenly an thunderous bellow sounded from the advancing Skorne column. A beast more than twice the height of any man charged forwards, mouth frothing and eyes red with rage. Long gunners open fired, but the bullets seemed only to spur the enraged titan forwards as they pinged harmlessly off it's thick hide and armoured plates. Galvanized by the threat of such a primal force of destruction, Reynad had his Nomad brace for impact buckler raised and back towards the wall of dirt. With a terrible crunch of metal, the titan smashed the Nomad several feet flying backwards out of the trench, spraying dirt in all directions and in the blink of an eye was beset by a barrage of furious metal crushing fists. Before Reynad could make sense of how his heavy warjack had been thrown like a ragdoll, an imposing figure walked towards him. Layered in massive armour that no normal man could hope to move in, this adversary glowed with mortitheurgical power, the opposing warlock had found a worthy opponent to take as a trophy. Reynad lashed out with blinding speed, no man should be able to stop an arcane empowered blade wearing such impractical armour. Much to his shock even though his blade struck home, the tyrant didn't even try to parry his attack! With a cruel grin the tyrant batted away the sword like a child's toy and raised his hand, red runes flashing as a wave of heat and energy impacting Reynad's chestplate, sending him flying much like his now scrapped warjack. Struggling for air, Reynad knew that if it weren't for his armour he would be nothing more than a pile of ash. Staggering to his feet the tyrant charged forwards with his war spear coming down in an overhead arc. Barely raising his greatsword in time, the blade end only made a shallow cut millimeters away from blinding his eye, drawing blood from his brow and cheek. He couldn't accept that he would die unremembered in some ditch in the middle of nowhere, and recklessly attacked, expending all his arcane power into enhancing the cutting power of his blade. The tyrant seemed disappointed that his foe would try such an unimaginative attack and raised his spear to block, and instead was greeted by the splintering of his weapon as empowered steel cleaved through his chest and face, splitting his torso into a grisly ruin. Utterly exhausted Reynad passed out into blackness as Steelhead mercenaries carried him off the bloodied battlefield. Category:IKRPG Category:PC Category:Male Category:Cygnar